Too Hungry for an Eel

It was one humid afternoon, when my sister and I was in the Pedro Gil area, we were really famished since it was around three in the afternoon and we hadn’t had our lunch yet. I guess we were having a hypoglycemic surge already. So we went to Robinson’s to look for a place to eat.

I wasn’t quite familiar with the place so she suggested that we eat at UCC. She had already eaten there and said that the food was great. So we looked at the menu and ordered.

I chose the Unagi Rice paired with lemonade while she, on the other hand, went for Omurice and got a cocoa float on the side. Food was served, all the while I thought that Unagi was beef, and lo, to my surprise, it wasn’t, to my dismay it was fish, I wasn’t pleased with the odor and was quite nauseated when I smelled it.



My sister saw me and asked me to try her food, and I liked the taste, so we decided to swap our orders. Thank heavens for that! Good grief if she hadn’t agreed, I wouldn’t have the stomach to swallow the whole dish.

The Unagi Rice didn’t quite suite my taste buds and my olfactory for that matter. I know, for an expensive dish such as that, I should have been delighted with it, but sad to say it’s not the price that matters but the taste which is of prime importance.

For the Omurice, well for me, from the taste down to the presentation, it was superb. I would recommend it to my friends. The rice and fish was cleanly wrapped inside the omelet which was quite deceiving. All the while I thought it was just a simple omelet but then, the presentation gave it a touch of mystery, which is quite important. The rice and fish were well cooked and the mixture of the flavoring was pleasing.

As for the drinks, well for the lemonade, it was quite sour; it lacked sweetness, which is important for sweet-toothed people like me, but if you prefer the sour taste then I am pretty sure you’ll love their lemonade.

As for the cocoa float, it was not what I expected it to be. After all, its price was soaring high. I thought that it was presented more elegantly but then it lacked the wow factor which can be expressed through presentation. As for the taste, well it lacked the sweetness and the richness of cocoa mixed with the ice cream. I wanted it to be creamier though, that’s the reason why it’s called a float because you want it to be creamier and better to the taste, isn’t it?

Hanna rates...

2/5 Unagi rice; 4.5/5 Omurice; 3/5 lemonade; 3/5 cocoa float

Bedazzling Dinner

My co-workers have been inviting me to have dinner at a place that bears name that's truly intriguing, Gayuma ni Maria. I was never able to join them but I did tell him about it and had him oblige to soon check out the place.

We were on our way home from a unit viewing when we decided to finally have dinner there at Gayuma ni Maria. Indeed it's a resto that's truly tough to locate. Apart from the not so visible sign age from afar, the resto is located in a village lined with houses and this too appears like one. That night we hadn't found our way.

Today, we decided to have lunch there instead since the resto does open at around 10am however a meeting came up that we had to forgo. Good thing though was that we were able to find the place. The biggest landmark there is the SaveMore shop in the corner. If you're coming from EDSA, you would need to turn right at the SaveMore shop. Once you see the Sr. Pedro Lechon Manok stall, you're already close by. When you see a pink house, congratulations! You have finally found Gayuma ni Maria.

Since we had missed out on our opportunity to have lunch there, we decided to drop by for an early dinner treat. Finally, we were able to dine here.

The resto is not really grand looking. The lights are dimmed. I find the curtains dividing the tables that lines that side of the resto really cute. Indeed fit for a date night. The pink walls perhaps was chosen to give that love potion aura as their name suggest. Caution though, this is not a child-friendly place for that nice Sunday family lunch despite the truly chocolatey menu. A corner is lined with articles... toys, costumes, and the like to help you express your sexuality.

Tuliro, a nacho salad

Moving on, we had a an intriguing nachos, "Tuliro;" a chocolate-covered dory called, "Once you get black, you'll never come back" and an order of 'Rack Me Baby" with mashed potatoes on the side. We just had bottomless glasses of Royal for our drinks. Despite the interesting dessert line-up, our tummies could no longer accommodate them.

Choco-coated dory with rice and taro fries siding

She says....

'Tuliro' was a really yummy nacho salad. It minded me of fresh garden and fruit salad with natural yogurt dressing plus a twist of cheesiness and the crispy nacho toppings. It was really yummy!

'Once you get black, you'll never come back, was a really nice and unique dish. The fish was coated with chocolate (not the oozing type) as though the batter was made of chocolate. It had a nice caramel-ish sauce. A serving of this dish was actually too much for us both.

The 'Rack me baby' was comme ci, comme Ça. Not sure if we were just so full or it was just really as ordinary as it can be.

Overall dining experience was pleasant. It was quiet, not much people there, maybe because it was still early when we ate there (around 5pm).

She rates: 4.5/5 Tuliro; 4/5 Once You get black, you'll never come back; 3/5 Rack me baby.

Rack me baby (back ribs) with bar-be-que sauce

He says...

I never thought that a hippie-looking place would produce foods with wonderful tastes. The Nachos, despite looking like any old nachos you order every week, has something very different in its taste. I think it had some fruits in it which could account for the weird but pleasant taste.

The chocolate covered fish was also good but I could barely taste the chocolate. The fish in it was fresh and the cream included gave it a more juice taste.

The ribs was also very good. It had some spike in its taste that sent some alert signals in my brain. The meat was very soft (almost as soft as Rak's) and the sauce was just right.

Although, I may not have enjoyed the meal the way I should because I *may* have eaten a lot.

He rates: 5/5 for all 3.

In The Company Of The Fishes

It was the first day of showing for the second part of Harry Potter and theDeathly Hallows (a.k.a. HP7) and we took the last schedule for the show. We were both hungry so we decided to return to one of our favorite food shops in Trinoma -- Fish & Co.

This restaurant's specialty is, you guessed it, fishes and sea foods. Although they also offer pork and other meat based food in their menu, don't expect too much from them because they're really all about fishes. Which is why we tried two items: one of fish and another of pig. Another way to look at it is: one of specialty and one of experiment.

Location: Fish & Co, top floor,TriNoMa Mall

Food Ordered: New York Fish and Chips, Barbecue Pork Ribs ("Just for me" size)

Cost: 441.96 each (VAT Excluded)

She says...
Fish & Co.'s New York Fish and Chips have always been our favorite. I personally loved the parmesan cheese that is in every bite of this treat. The outer shell was crispy but it's amazingly soft and juicy in the inside. The blend of tartar sauce, pickles and garlic plus the squirt of lemon juice enhances the taste even more.

The fries siding is just your usual fried potato but with a less salty taste. Not sure though if it has lesser sodium content.

The barbequed pork ribs on the other hand was not so pleasing. The meat itself was bland. It tasted like boiled meat without even a hint of salt in it. Dipping it in their bar-be-que sauce gives it an average taste that appears notably to have had too much Worcestershire sauce added into it. Just maybe not my type. The seafood rice siding on the other hand was like jave rice, plain tasting, purely turmeric I guess. t didn't have a hint of seafood in it. All you can notice is the overload of red and green bell peppers.

She rates: NY Fish and Chips 5/5, Bar-be-que Pork Ribs 2/5,  Seafood Rice 2.5/5
He says...

As I said above, this is one of our favorite places to go to in Trinoma Mall. Their specialty here are their fish and chips, which they have three variants, and we found, through repeated visits, that the most favorable (for us) is their New York Fish and Chips. It has the taste of Parmesan Cheese all over it. The taste is still mild but you can remedy that by adding some of their special dip. You control the proportions of the dip's ingredients are but however you want to do it, it has the same taste but only differ in intensity.

Also, as said above, pork is not their specialty so I didn't expect much but their pork was still delicious anyway. It still had that flavor that could almost rival some very good steak houses but it has some flaws. The flavor isn't as full and the meat isn't as soft.

He rates: 5/5 New York Fish and Chips. 4/5 BBQ Pork Ribs